September 25, 2017
Macau

I took a day trip to Macau and I had the best time! Here are my random observations of Macau.

1. You can get to Macau from Hong Kong in one hour by taking a high speed ferry.
2. There are two ferry terminals in Macau - make sure you remember which one you need to go to if you purchased return tickets.
3. Macau used to be a Portuguese colony.
4. It's the Las Vegas of Asia.
5. They have a great bus system.
6. And it's cheap to ride the public transportation.
7. Macau is also famous for snacks. They sell everything from fresh beef jerky, peanut cookies, pineapple tarts, etc.
8. Also home to a giant panda pavilion!
9. The public signs are written in both Portuguese and Mandarin.
10. You will feel like you are in Europe and not in Asia. Some of the building exteriors/interiors are European.
11. Take advantage of the free casino shuttles once you get off the ferry.
12. Macau is always building new casino's/hotels.
13. They have the best peanut cookies!
14. You can sample all the snacks by walking around the tourists area by ruins of St. Paul.
15. And of course they sell pastel de nata.

September 15, 2017
Hong Kong

After shopping in Hong Kong, we had dinner with our friends and they took us to a restaurant in Kowloon. I happily followed our friends to get to this place and they took care of ordering our dinner. It was a local's only place.

They always order the best dishes!

This one was my favourite - deep fried squid with cashews. I like anything with nuts for added crunchiness.

And we also ordered sweet and sour pork, rice, steamed chicken with soy sauce, and eggplant on a hot pot.

We went to Bing Kee for the Hong Kong style milk tea. I got hooked to drinking milk tea after this. It's so good! And this restaurant is just off an alley and you sit on plastic stools and they have really tiny folding tables for customers to use.

It's the best drink on a hot day.

The tea was delicious and the chicken wings are the best! The perfect snack for me :)

September 12, 2017
Macau

I have a mild obsession with pandas and when I was planning my visit to Macau, I found out that they have a giant panda pavilion. I knew I needed to go see the pandas.

After visiting the sites and hoarding snacks, we went to the Venetian casino to walk around. I thought we had plenty of time to see the pandas but quickly realized we spent a lot of time at the casino.
Taking the bus was out of the question so we took a taxi to the pavilion.

I was panicking but thankfully we made it in time. There was no line to get the tickets and we rushed to the building where the pandas live. Of course the first thing we saw was this cutie eating bamboo. Just chilling and eating.

I have no idea if this is a male or female panda. Loved watching him/her though walk around their home. We only spotted 2 pandas. The babies were not here.

It certainly made my year! I was so happy I went here. And of course I hoarded some items from the gift shop. I bought key chains, stickers, and a stuff toy.